Australia And Taiwan Markets Like Italian Wines And Olive Oils

Australia and Taiwan are fast becoming the two most important markets in South East Asia and Australasia for Italian exports of wine and extra virgin olive oil respectively.

In 2014, Italian wine exports to Australia amounted to 8.5 million litres and were worth €35.4m. Italy was the third largest exporter of wine to Australia after New Zealand and France.

Australia is one of the countries with the highest wine consumption per capita in the world, the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce reported. A typical wine drinker in Australia, on average, consumes 29.1 litres of wine per year. They are also very aware of quality and tend to look for fine wines. On-line wine purchasing is becoming increasingly more popular.
There is also considerable interest in organic wines. In fact, 91 per cent of Australians perceive organic wines to have added value. Demand and supply for organic wine in Australia is constantly increasing and as a result, domestic production of grapes grown with natural methods has increased by 120 per cent over the last three years.

Australia represents a key growing market for Italian wine exports. So much so that in 2014, Veronafiere and Vinitaly International (the organisers of the main wine exhibition event in Italy) took part in the “Italian wine meets Australia” event in Melbourne to promote Italian wines. Similarly, in March 2015, an Australian business delegation was at Vinitaly International in Italy.

In addition, Italian extra virgin olive oil is highly sought after in the Far East. In fact, Taiwan has seen recently a boom in sales of Italian extra virgin olive oil. In 2014, Italian export of extra virgin olive to Taiwan amounted to €17m, twice as much as the previous year. Italy is the main exporter of olive oil to Taiwan, with a market share of 58 per cent, followed by Greece with a market share of just 18 per cent.